Intel claims major advancement in the 45nm technology for
processors, but IBM and Intel’s rival AMD had already claimed the same thing last December.
The 45 nanometer (45 nm) process is the next milestone (to be commercially viable in mid 2007 to early 2008) in CMOS fabrication. Intel stated in 2003 that high-k gate dielectrics may be introduced at the 45 nm node to reduce gate leakage current. However, chipmakers have since then voiced concerns about introducing these new materials into the gate stack.
Intel’s researchers say their advancement in the 45nm technology represents the most significant change in the materials used to manufacture silicon chips since Intel pioneered the modern integrated-circuit transistor more than four decades ago.
The company claims to be one of the first chip makers to implement these new materials in its process technology. Using an undisclosed thick hafnium-based material for its high-k films in gate-stack applications, Intel claims that it is able to boost the overall performance, while also reducing transistor leakage by more than 10 times over current silicon dioxide technology.
Hafnium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray tetravalent transition metal, hafnium resembles zirconium chemically and is found in zirconium minerals. Hafnium is used in tungsten alloys in filaments and electrodes and also acts as a neutron absorber in control rods in nuclear power plants.
Last year, Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini showed for the first time how processing power is becoming more relevant than ever. The advent of new operating systems, more lifelike games, online
video and high-definition video continue to drive the need for more processing power. He was quoted saying that “a single You Tube stream today will hobble a PC from just a few years ago. As we move to high definition video, users will need eight times greater performance just for encoding.”
“More than ever processing power matters, even as the need to reduce heat, extend battery life, and reduce electricity costs in
data centers becomes more critical,” said Otellini.
Back in September 2006, Otellini disclosed for the first time that the company has 15 45nm products already in development across desktop, mobile, and enterprise segments. The first of these products is on track to complete its design in the fourth quarter of this year. He described the company’s extensive 45-nm factory
network with more than 500,000 square feet of clean room space and more than $9 billion invested.
Intel Corporation had already opened an advanced, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing facility in Leixlip, Ireland back in June 2006. The event marked Intel’s third chip factory using the advanced 65nm process technology and the industry’s first chip factory in Europe producing 65nm chips in
high volume.
The US$2 billion factory was destined to begin high-volume production using 65nm process technology produced on the industry’s largest wafer size (300mm), which provides the Intel fab with the potential to generate the world’s highest microprocessor output at the lowest cost. Along with Intel’s Fab 12 in Arizona and D1D fab in Oregon, the new facility (called Fab 24-2) is the most technologically advanced, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing plant in the world building multi-core microprocessors.
The microprocessor chips, which Intel plans to begin making in the second half of this year, are designed for computers but they could also have applications in consumer devices. Their combination of processing power and energy efficiency could make it possible, for example, for cellphones to play video at length- a demanding digital task- with less battery drain.
"This is evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary," UC Berkeley electrical engineering Professor Vivek Subramanian told the New York Times about the news. "But it will generate a big sigh of relief."
Even with these breakthroughs, silicon still will be used in the bulk of chips made by Intel and other semiconductor makers.
''As more and more transistors are packed onto a single piece of silicon, the industry continues to research current leakage reduction solutions,'' said Mark Bohr, Intel senior fellow. ''Our implementation of novel high-k and metal gate transistors for our 45-nm process technology will help Intel deliver even faster, more energy efficient multi-core products that build upon our successful
Intel Core 2 and
Xeon family of processors, and extend Moore's Law well into the next decade.''
New details about the breakthroughs Intel registered are expected on Monday, further confirming industry analysts’ opinion that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip manufacturer still has a 6 to 9 months lead compared to its rivals, mainly IBM and AMD.
But IBM executives disputed this claim and said the two companies were focused on different markets in the computing industry.
Back in December 2006, AMD and IBM have jointly revealed that the breakthroughs they’ve registered in this key domain (the 45 nm technology) will put them ahead of any competitor in the race for mass production (Intel).
Back then, the two hardware giants revealed the fact that up-coming chips will use technologies like the immersion lithography and ultra-low-k interconnect dielectrics. Immersion lithography is a resolution enhancement technique that interposes a liquid medium between the optics and the wafer surface, replacing the usual air gap. A dielectric, or electrical insulator, is a substance that is highly resistant to electric current. A low-k dielectric is one with a small dielectric constant. In digital circuits, insulating dielectrics separate the conducting parts (wire interconnects and transistors) from one another. To make higher-speed chips, the transistors must be placed closer and closer together, and thus the insulating layer becomes thinner. This leads to charge build up and crosstalk, adversely affecting the maximum operating speed and performance of the chip.
Low-K dielectrics have very low dielectric constants, reducing parasitic capacitance and enabling faster switching speeds and lower heat dissipation.
"Immersion lithography will allow us to deliver enhanced microprocessor design definition and manufacturing consistency," AMD vice president of logic technology development Nick Kepler was quoted saying.
The companies have also added in their common declaration that they will use a series of enhanced transistor strain techniques to simplify the production of 45 nanometer processors
AMD has only just started creating 65 nanometer based CPUs at its Dresden plant, long after its competitor Intel rolled out the process at its factories.